Bound To The Dead: The Deceptive Class-E Farmer-Chapter 52: Bleed For The Farmer

The silence didn’t last.

Geoffrey stood.

His frame had broadened, his stance more solid. He looked younger now than he had just moments ago, despite being in his late forties.

His short gray beard looked sharper. He looked more like a warlord than a king.

His wounds were gone. His eyes glowed white, cold, focused. His face showed no pain.

Isaac narrowed his gaze and finally scanned the man’s status.

[Name: Geoffrey Aretha]

[Type: Lightning Mage]

[Rank: Class S++]

[Status: Pissed]

[Abilities: Unknown - Authority too low]

[Hidden Trait: Unknown - Authority too low]

"Tch.."

Before Geoffrey could speak, Isaac rushed in.

He wasn’t at full strength, Abyssal Overdrive was on cooldown, but he attacked anyway.

Slash!

Blocked. Geoffrey caught the sickle with a hand crackling with lightning.

Isaac’s other blade shot toward the ribs...

Geoffrey seized his arm and hurled him across the plaza.

CRACK!

Isaac crashed into a stone column. Pain bloomed through his spine. He dropped to one knee, coughing hard.

Geoffrey stepped forward. Silent. Eyes glowing. No smile now, just that blank, terrifying calm.

Isaac forced himself up.

[Energy Level: 29%]

[Abyssal Overdrive: Cooldown 00:26:34]

[Tool Savant: 19:52 remaining]

"Damn it..."

He raised his sickles.

Aiah stepped beside him, fists clenched, fire already flickering in her palms.

"What’s the plan?"

Isaac didn’t look at her. Just said, under his breath, "I need twenty-five minutes."

She glanced at him. "For what?"

"To regain my full strength."

Before she could respond, Broner’s voice came nearby.

"Then we’ll buy you fuckin’ time."

Suddenly...

Fire.

Aiah.

She sprinted forward, palms blazing. Her eyes burned with fury.

"This is for my father."

Flames erupted from her hands as she charged, unleashing a blazing wave straight into Geoffrey’s face.

He didn’t flinch.

But Aiah didn’t hesitate.

She launched a flurry of strikes, fists, elbows, kicks, all cloaked in flame. Her battle cry rose louder than the fire.

Geoffrey caught her mid-swing and lifted her by the throat. Her legs thrashed in the air.

Then...

Steel fell from above.

Broner. He dropped from a ledge like a thunderbolt, twin blades flashing.

"For Bulcan! For the real heir!"

One sword slashed Geoffrey’s shoulder. The other stabbed into his ribs. Sparks exploded from the impact.

Geoffrey staggered, not much, but enough for Aiah to break free and drop to the ground.

From the side, behind an overturned wagon...

He was already drawn, arrow tip pulsing bright with runes.

"Let’s see you brush this off."

He fired.

The arrow sliced the air...

BOOM! It slammed into Geoffrey’s chest. Fire, smoke, and dust exploded outward.

Silence.

Then, from the smoke, Geoffrey stepped forward.

A small scorch mark marred the center of his robe.

He was still standing.

Still breathing.

Geoffrey smirked, raising his hand. Lightning sparked in his palm.

And then...

A voice cut through the chaos.

"...Tch. You all really started without me?"

Everyone turned.

Behind a heap of broken carts, a figure stood.

Putol.

Bloody. Limping. One leg dragging. Still smirking.

Geoffrey chuckled. "Bold words... from a corpse-in-waiting."

"Have your time, Isaac," Putol muttered, dragging his blade behind him. "I’ll make it count."

Another figure moved beside him.

Ben.

He staggered forward, one hand pressed against his ribs. His bow was gone, but a short dagger glinted in his grip.

Isaac blinked.

Then came the last.

Nai.

Bruised. Sword in hand. Swollen eyes, but locked forward.

Isaac clenched his jaw. He was worried. He didn’t want them in this.

[Abyssal Overdrive: Cooldown 00:18:00]

Geoffrey scanned them all. Then he smirked.

"I don’t think I’ll need lightning," he said, voice light, almost bored. "That’d turn you all into ashes too quickly. I want to play."

His eyes flicked to Isaac. "You’ll live. They won’t."

Then, he vanished.

Putol’s eyes widened, just a second too late.

Pain detonated in his chest as Geoffrey’s fist slammed into him like a hammer, launching him backward with a sickening crunch of breaking bone. bone.

The one-armed man crumpled in the dirt, unmoving.

Isaac’s gut clenched.

"Putol...!"

Then Geoffrey turned to Ben.

The young archer stumbled through his pain, barely raising an arm...

WHAM!

A fist crashed into his chest. Ben flew, slamming into a stone pillar. Blood soaked through his shirt as he hit the ground and didn’t move.

Then Geoffrey looked at Nai.

Nai had barely shifted, but Geoffrey charged.

The blade in Nai’s hand sliced toward Geoffrey’s throat. But Geoffrey’s gauntlet came down in a brutal slap.

Nai’s body crashed to the ground and skidded like a broken toy.

Isaac’s heart hammered.

Nai!

But, he moved.

"Not yet," Nai growled, forcing himself to stand. "I’m... still here."

His voice was a whip crack through the chaos.

Geoffrey exhaled like he was tired of the performance.

"Foolish."

He swung again, sending Nai flying into a mound of shattered stone. His body twitched once. Then lay still.

Aiah came next. Fire ignited in her palms, her fury blazing like a wildfire.

She charged.

Geoffrey caught her wrist mid-swing and twisted it behind her back. Her flames hissed and died.

Then he slammed her into the ground.

Once.

Twice.

Dropped her like a broken doll.

Emotionless.

Isaac’s body tensed. His jaw clenched. Every instinct screamed at him to charge, but he held. His energy was too low. Overdrive wasn’t ready yet.

He just needed more time.

But his allies weren’t done.

Broner surged forward, blades glowing. The air bent around him like a storm had torn through the plaza.

"Wind Rift! Dual Sever!"

He vanished in a blur.

Geoffrey’s eyes narrowed, finally, a flicker of real attention.

Broner reappeared behind him mid-spin, twin swords crossing toward Geoffrey’s spine.

SHFFFT!

The sound of tearing fabric and slicing flesh echoed. His robes split wide open. A deep gash ran across Geoffrey’s back.

He staggered one step forward.

Broner smirked.

Then the gauntlet struck.

Broner crashed into the stone like a meteor. The ground split on impact. Blood burst from his mouth as he hit the ground.

A heartbeat later...

The wound on Geoffrey’s back closed.

His robe began knitting itself together.

Not even a scar remained.

Geoffrey’s gaze darkened.

Corpuz moved.

"Judgement Arrow!"

One shot. Four arrows, fired fast, all at once.

One hit Geoffrey in the forehead.

One struck his neck.

One slammed into his chest.

And the last one hit the dick.

A split second later... BOOM!

The arrows exploded on impact. Fire and smoke burst across the plaza. The shockwave shook the ground.

Corpuz lowered his bow.

He exhaled.

"That’s for the people you butchered, for the crown you stole, for Prince Randolf, and me."

The smoke started to clear but...

Geoffrey was still standing.

His robes were ripped and burned. His skin was blackened where the arrows hit, but only for a second. The burns faded. The holes in his body closed like they never happened.

His eyes glowed brighter.

Corpuz’s jaw tightened.

"Not bad for my Class S generals."

Corpuz’s smile died.

Geoffrey moved.

In a blink, he was in front of Corpuz.

Geoffrey’s fist slammed into Corpuz’s chest.

The archer flew, hitting the wall hard enough to shake the plaza.

Geoffrey now stood alone, surrounded by broken bodies, his expression blank.

The system flashed.

[Abyssal Overdrive: Cooldown 00:09:02]

That was it.

No more waiting. No more watching his people bleed.

Isaac raised his sickles. Shoulders low. Ready to strike.

But before he could charge...

A bloodied hand grabbed his wrist.

"Aiah...?"

She was barely standing. Eyes glazed, lips bloodied, but still burning.

"You idiot," she rasped, voice hoarse. "Save your damn energy... until it’s your time."

Isaac froze.

From Geoffrey’s back, a shadow staggered forward.

Putol.

Crushed. Bleeding. Barely upright.

His lone arm trembled as he dragged a chipped sword along the cracked stone.

No words. No scream.

Just eyes blazing with raw defiance.

SHHK!

Putol lunged.

He swung with everything he had left.

The blade never landed.

Geoffrey turned, calm and deliberate, and snapped out a vicious spinning kick.

His leg slammed into Putol’s ribs with a sharp, bone-snapping sound.

The one-armed man flew.

He collided with a half-standing wall. The impact shook the structure, and it collapsed over him, swallowing his broken body in a mess of rubble.

Isaac shouted, "PUTOL!"

But fire answered first.

Aiah struck.

Her hands flared to life, twin torrents of flame blasting across the plaza straight at Geoffrey.

The first hit... he swatted it away.

The second burst against his arm.

Then...

A red circle of glyphs glowed beneath his feet.

Geoffrey looked down.

Too late.

"Fire bomb."

FWOOOM... BOOM!

The ground exploded.

A shockwave ripped through the plaza. Debris launched skyward. Fire roared like a tidal wave across the stone.

Isaac shielded his face from the blast. The heat was searing.

Smoke filled the air. Aiah coughed, barely holding herself up. She was drained.

Then...

Geoffrey stepped through the inferno like a wrathful god.

His robes were scorched, blisters bubbled across his arms and neck. Parts of his skin peeled, raw and red, but his eyes... they were locked on Aiah, glowing with death.

He vanished.

And reappeared right in front of her.

His knee drove into her gut with brutal force. Aiah folded over with a strangled gasp.

Then came the backhand, fast, cruel, and merciless. The blow flung her across the plaza.

She slammed into a cart and crumpled in a heap, coughing up blood.

[Abyssal Overdrive: Cooldown 00:07:31]

Too long.

Too damn long.

Across the battlefield, Geoffrey spread his arms.

"No one left to beat down, farm boy. Guess that means it’s your turn."

Isaac barely raised his stance.

Geoffrey was already there, a blur.

A fist thundered toward his face.

Isaac ducked, just in time.

He twisted, sickle swinging in a savage arc toward Geoffrey’s ribs...

But Geoffrey’s knee exploded upward, smashing into Isaac’s jaw and lifting him clean off the ground.

Then...

A spinning kick blasted into Isaac’s chest, sending him crashing through the front of a ruined store.

[Abyssal Overdrive: Cooldown 00:06:11]

[Warning: Energy Level 23%]

Isaac couldn’t move, not right away.

Every part of him screamed. Limbs numb. Breath shallow. Vision swimming.

Geoffrey’s boots crunched on stone. "Let’s end it."

Isaac groaned, dragging himself upright on trembling legs. His grip tightened around his sickles.

He raised them, loose guard or not.

Then he looked out.

The plaza was a graveyard.

Broner and Corpuz, barely breathing.

Ben is motionless.

Nai is bleeding out.

Putol is buried under rubble.

Aiah is down, limp in the wreckage.

His heart twisted. He didn’t know who would make it.

And just as hope began to fade...

’Up on your left, Master.’

Isaac turned.

Perched on a rooftop...

Hopper.

’How’s everyone?’

’Many couldn’t regenerate from ash. But most did. Wounded are healing. Our numbers... nearly restored.’

A pause.

’You bought us time. Now it’s our turn... to buy you some.’

Isaac grinned.

Geoffrey’s brow twitched.

"Swarm Authority," he growled, and the sky answered.